<p>I am currently a BS in Chemical Engineering sophomore at the University of the Philippines Los Ba</p>
<p>What are your goals after graduation? Do you want to enter the sugar or pulp/paper industries? I’m not sure if those are big industries or not in the Phillipines but if they offer a lot of job opportunities and you have an interest, then go for it. One downside to picking one of those specializations is that it might pigeon-hole you into a particular industry that you may not want to be in later on. I have never seen a sugar technology option for any ChemE program here in the US. I have seen a few Pulp and Paper programs but they are few and far between. Personally, I would just take the general curriculum and take time after your graduate to discover what industry you want to enter.</p>
<p>Internationally, a lot of chemical engineers work in non-sugar, non-paper areas (e.g. petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc.). So if you want to leave open career possibilities in other parts of the chemical engineering field, you may want to consider the general curriculum.</p>
<p>My dad has been a ChemE in the paper industry for over 25 years and take his advice, DO NOT GO PAPER. He is a head rep for a major paper chemical supplier and he’s worked in several mills over the years. The industry is dying. We are using far less paper now then ever. Many mills are being closed, and some of the larger are being scaled back. I career shadowed him and every person i spoke to urged me to not go into the pulp and paper industry. They said they are barely going to get out in time, but it is not a reliable future career.</p>
<p>Thank you for everyone’s replies. Is the paper industry situation really that bad? It quite convinced me since it made me realized that we’re using more electronic media nowadays.</p>
<p>As for my second question, any good graduate programs and schools for these two?</p>